When going out is a burden to women [Archives:2005/894/Culture]
BY ESHRAQ AL-BODIGI
[email protected]
FOR YEMEN TIMES
Recently, of the many dangerous negative social phenomena that have threatened Yemeni society, the phenomenon that is still leading the society to a downhill of moral degeneration is that of the treatment of women. This ongoing problem keeps Yemeni society away from the religious attributes that have kept this community noble and lures it closer to undesirable corruption and perversity of all kinds.
As a Yemeni woman shows her supporting capacity for a Yemeni man in so many different scopes, she also shows her rising freedom, personality, and culture. She does this in order to liberate herself from the darkness of existing ignorance. By doing so she reveals the darkness of the external world despite its' sciences, cultures, and arts. She aims to direct her family and society to a better future, in which man and woman share a responsibility together.
These things are made all the more difficult by the contradictory modern environments of fast development and social stagnation. This contradiction pushes her efforts into a dark tunnel that engulfs her with fear of disharmony in her social and functional capacities outside the family.
Whether a woman who is employed or not, she has to carry another kind of worry when wants to go out of her house. She encounters this every time she tends to her personal needs or the needs of her family and they occur at public places such as markets and shops.
Occasions such as these have become a hazard that threatens the security, freedom, and dignity of women. They are reflected in the immoral behaviors on which they are based. This type of behavior is exhibited by the adolescents and youths gathered in public places, especially in markets and shops. It seems they are there in order to spend a long time in the harassment and annoyance of women.
This social phenomenon has become a real misery generally for women all over the Republic of Yemen. However, the view that women are inferior comes mostly from the common people, especially from a group of people who didn't know how to respect the woman originally.
These people consider her as just a woman that should stay at home to only cook, wash, raise the children, and take care of her husband. They have forgotten her important role in raising her community in various scopes and fields of life besides her role as a mother and wife. They have forgotten that the correct cultivation of children depends on the unblemished educational structure, which derives from a perfect culture and more respected, correct, and harmonious social merger.
The problem is not only that men have no faith in women's role in society. Yemeni women show indescribable respect for men while the men show an obvious lack of concern and less respect for them.
Usually, men in Eastern societies maintain their masculine selfishness while he implements his authority on women and asks them to cringe before him.
However in our Yemeni society, the situation is worse and things are more complicated. A man who is uneducated or has only a small educational level is still not convinced these days that a woman employee can offer a real role and achieve a real progress for her country and community through her work's field. He cannot believe that woman can push her society towards development, progress, and prosperity.
We should not forget that dangerous behaviors, which we have already discussed, are not contained to excessive flirtation but they also involve dirty words and sexual harassment. These violate decency and religious values, and in some cases go beyond even that to include offences like abduction.
There is a study, which was prepared by a number of concerned researchers and organizations that can provide facts to bolster this view. It shows that 90% of Yemeni women are subject to various kinds of harassment in public places such as streets, markets, parks, and modes of transportation.
Furthermore, Yemeni women are subjected every day not just to negligible harassments while they are performing their jobs. This harassment comes from co-workers, bosses and others they meet whilst at work.
Because we are in an age that we are free to say anything to defend women's rights and protect her dignity, we have to say that it is very important and necessary for everyone to protect these human beings. Furthermore it is necessary to merge them within society in a proper way that guarantees their human rights and safeguards them from the different types of violence against them.
The men, young or old, who do not respect women and do not appreciate their important role in society, have to understand that women carry their rights and respect everywhere. If they do not understand this, many new kinds of suppression will appear in order to stop such phenomena and odd behavior and also to reinsure the protection of Yemeni women. Then those people who do not have any kind of respect for women will find themselves put into the places where they deserve to take their suitable punishment.
In the light of this issue, the Yemeni Interior Ministry has announced a few days ago that there is a campaign that aims to limit of the phenomena of women's harassment at communal places, markets, and parks. The ministry maintains that it has adopted measures to execute these campaigns, which will affect all in the Republic of Yemen's governments. The aim of this campaign is to save Yemeni women's rights and their dignity, which are violated every day on the streets, in transportation, and even public places.
This campaign is going to give women permission to progress while saving their dignity, hopefully telling them that the Yemeni community will not accept the moral degeneration and harming of women's distinction. It confirmed Yemeni women are supported in all fields.
Coming back to the group of people who violate decency, this type of campaign will deter them from joining and engaging in immoral works. It will correct their behavior towards women. And it will force them to respect her according to her human rights, her level of educational, and her position on the national and international stage.
Generally, this campaign will make the men more aware of the necessity of proper women's treatment in a societal view instead of the sexual view, which always prevents men and women from the correct functional social merger.
On the other hand, there are some of Yemeni laws, which are related to this issue that dictate a punishment of imprisonment of one year for harassment of women in the streets. However this law is not applied in reality. This may be due to women's negligence to inform the police about these kind of harassments take place or may be due to lack of evidence of the event itself.
We have to mention the necessity of policewomen in situations like these and in such places too. It is necessary that policewomen occupy different governmental sectors and public places to help foster these positive campaigns and make them more useful for women at the same time.
At the end of this subject, we have to mention one more thing. This is the importance of the proper upbringing in the home. It is very important to care about the correct upbringing for the children, especially the male ones. The wise family is that which brings up their boy to respect his sisters and feel their closeness to him. It is wise to teach him how to respect and defend their rights, learning about his sisters' social roles whether inside or outside the family.
This good upbringing is the correct base for social structure, which is free from dangerous, irregular behaviors and phenomena. The normal man can respect his sister, mother, aunts, and cousins, and he will reflex this respect towards all women outside the home.
Now, is it hopeless to wish this solution as a future 'radical' solution instead of these campaigns?
——
[archive-e:894-v:14-y:2005-d:2005-11-14-p:culture]
